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So far, my midterm experience has been minimal. Out of my six classes, I have only had one midterm. However, I have had several exams thus far, and I have to admit I haven’t had much trouble adapting from high school tests to college tests; the most important part of a test is preparation.

Living in a dorm has taught me a lot about studying. I’ve found that everyone is willing to offer studying tips, from teachers to parents to peers. Yet, the only way I can retain information is by studying my way, which is quite bizarre. What does this consist of? Early in the day on the day before an exam, I usually read through my notes and make a brief study guide. I rarely use it to study, but going through the process of rewriting these facts helps me to memorize the information. Later in the day, I will study my notes in a quiet place for a solid three hours and quit for the night. I find the following morning at five a.m. a prime time to review and lock everything into my brain. I can say that despite the subject or length of the exam, this process is generally the same, and it works for me. However, dorm life has shown me that everyone has his or her own style of studying. Most people study at night, some people study with music on, some people make flash cards – everyone’s different. For example, a lot of people enjoy group study sessions, but I find these do absolutely nothing for me so I don’t go.

I am lucky that I have found my ultimate study pattern. This has made school so much more productive for me. Once you have discovered your own study tricks, everything will fall into place.

As we enter the middle of the fall term, many professors are administering scary tests or papers. My teachers seem to be split, with about half giving tests and half having us write some sort of paper. I can’t say which one I prefer, as both are time consuming, but I’m trying to manage my time to prepare as best as I can for each class. After years of waiting till the last minute to start most assignments, I feel like I’ve finally learned my lesson, and I’ve really been trying not to procrastinate. I’ve actually noticed that by starting earlier, I’m a lot less stressed and I’m able to do better on the assignments. Imagine how I felt in the moment when I realized that everything my teachers and parents always told me was true. 😉

To prepare for the courses in which I’m taking exams, I try to read over all my materials a few days before the test to refresh my memory and make note of the topics or definitions that I’m still not very clear about. Then, I either ask my professor or classmates about it and study it further on my own. I also find it really helpful to make flash cards for definitions or explicit ideas that I can’t seem to remember. If I carry those around and look at them every so often for a couple days, then I remember them a lot better. This seems to work a lot better then cramming it all in at once.

If I have a big a paper to write, I try to start as early as possible by at least getting some general ideas down on what I’m going to write about. Then, a few days before the paper is due, I’ll type a draft without printing it and leave it saved on my computer for a few days. If I go back after not thinking about it for a while, I can catch more mistakes and bring new ideas to make the paper better. This also alleviates a lot of the stress that comes with writing and printing out the paper the night before it’s due.

Although all this early preparation takes up a lot of my free time, I keep telling myself it will be worth it when I do well. I think I can handle a week or so of intense work if it means I’ll do significantly better in class.